It’s been three and half months since Conan O’Brien left “The Tonight Show,” and though the crowd at the Hult Center on Monday night couldn’t compete with O’Brien’s former viewership in number, they compensated with sheer enthusiasm.
On the opening night of his nationwide comedy tour, the bearded O’Brien basked in the sustained applause of a standing ovation, but he wasted little time jumping into his usual self-deprecating, celebrity-dork routine.
“I really miss the applause,” he proclaimed. “You have no idea how shallow I am. If you aren’t applauding me, I don’t exist. I’m like Tinker Bell.”
Despite a slew of tongue-in-cheek jokes about his sabbatical from television, including outlandish claims of visiting the unemployment office, sleeping on Hollywood Boulevard and struggling with the “eight steps of grieving the loss of your talk show,” O’Brien’s performance came just hours after it was announced that he would be hosting a late-night show on TBS as early as November.
“You may have heard, I got a new job. I’m the new assistant manager of the Eugene Banana Republic,” he joked.
“The Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour,” pitched by the tour Web site as “a night of music, comedy, hugging and the occasional awkward silence,” is the first comedy tour of O’Brien’s career.
Originally viewed as a showcase for O’Brien’s potential employers, the tour can now be used to promote the new TBS show.
The formula for the live performance was strongly reminiscent of O’Brien’s talk shows, featuring former Tonight Show band (minus Max Weinberg), sidekick Andy Richter, the Walker Texas Ranger Lever, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and the Masturbating Bear. The latter received a flash makeover and was renamed the Self-Pleasuring Panda to clear potential copyright infringement, said O’Brien, who warned that “the lawyers are watching.”
The now famous “I’m with Coco” image created by fan Mike Mitchell during the Tonight Show controversy, featuring a black-and-white drawing of O’Brien with his iconic hair highlighted bright orange, could be seen everywhere at the show. Many fans put on shirts featuring the image before the show even started.
Trace Shannon, who came down from Portland in a successful attempt to give O’Brien two boxes of Voodoo doughnuts, said he made the trip simply because he loved Conan.
“He is a riot and we love him,” Shannon said. “That’s why we’re here.”
Stephanie Smith, another Portlander, agreed with the sentiment.
“I think he’s great,” she said, “there have been times when I’ve watched his show and like a little tear has run down my eye; he’s just so funny.”
In response to a question about why O’Brien would choose to visit Eugene instead of Portland, Smith said she thought it was probably because of the University.
“It’s a college town, and I would assume that’s kinda his demographic,” she said. “Maybe he just wanted to show love to the people who really supported him over the years … you know, college kids.”

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